The Hindu Business Line : Prices of shrimp continue to rule low

THE fall in shrimp prices reported last week have been arrested, but on a month-to-month basis, the prices continue to rule low. Price recovery has been reported for shrimp from competing sources such as Thailand, Vietnam and Bangladesh, although it is still confined to select counts alone.

The price fall was confined to frozen black tiger exports to the US, while the peeled and de-veined variety remained stable in both tail-on and tail-off varieties. The fall was evident on a month-to-month basis on Indian shrimp imports between July 22 and August 19.

The average f.o.b prices for Indian frozen black tiger in New York market for the 12/15 count fell to $7.20 as on August 19 as against $7.40 for the week ending July 22.

The price for the 16/20 count were $5.70 ($6.00), 21/25 at $4.25 ($4.45) and 26/30 count was $3.65 ($3.80).

Though the prices for Indian white-farmed shrimp (vannamei) were not available for most counts, among those available the 36/40 count fell to $2.80 from $2.85 last week.

Sources in the export trade said the burden of the low prices would eventually fall on the aquaculture farmer and the fishermen. The exporter has now not only to bear the low prices but also the added burden of anti-dumping duties levied on Indian shrimp imports into the US.

The only silver lining is the pick-up in enquiries and orders from Japan of late.

However, most remained optimistic that the downturn would be temporary in nature and the US market would rebound soon.

In the value added segment, marginal fall was evident in most counts of Indian peeled and de-veined shrimp in the tail-on category. In the tail-off variety the market maintained the price gains made over the month.

In most of the value added segments, cooked and de-veined varieties, peeled and de-veined blocks and individually quick frozen segments, India does not have a significant presence in the US markets.

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